It’s been a week of the usual crazy days being mama and family life, writer and doing short stories, book reviewer and reading, and now editor! But a very productive week. Over at CTM we’re now a team of eleven strong writing warriors, preparing for launch day! All the columns I want to feature in the magazine are covered, apart from LGBT. Which is sad, but I am on a mission to allocate the column to a talented writer, I’m still recruiting. My other areas are covered, but I’d like a good few writers working on each section. Especially the Men’s Corner and Sport section, so I’m still considering submissions for areas.

We’re on social media now too you can catch us on Facebook, if you want to give us a like @conscioustalkmag and Twitter if you want to Tweet and follow us @conscious_talk.

My days and evenings have been spent reading all the submissions from writers, I’m actually really touched and surprised at the response rate to the recruitment campaign! Some submissions have been poor of course and to be expected, some have been excellent and some have been mind blowing! So mind blowing it has led me to open up a new column, Conscious Poems. The team are international UK, Brazil, and even as far as Africa and the Middle East. This I’m so pleased about. The team are also super talented.

What have I learned?

Time management is key, even more as an editor than writer I think.

It’s not just about how good someone writes, it’s about the overall attitude of the person when it comes to building a team.

How to write a snappy team brief with direction, so everyone knows what they are doing.

Sometimes, a writer may not be perfect. However, there might be a lot of passion in their work and you can see the potential. Don’t be the editor to shun them with that f*ck off rejection letter, help them to develop maybe even give them a chance.

How to give balanced constructive feedback to someone you don’t know well, and don’t have a full idea of what they are capable of. (As you’ve never read their work before).